Venezuelan restaurant opens in Evansville food hall

EVANSVILLE – Rava’s Venezuelan Restaurant has recently opened in the Main Street Food & Beverage Food Hall, introducing yet another authentic Latin cuisine to Evansville diners.

We talked to the Rava’s team to find out what you need to know about the restaurant and Venezuelan food in general.

How did Rava’s come to be?

The owners are Alexander Ramirez and his wife Emily Melean, with co-founder Andres Nava. Victoria Conil is the Rava’s ambassador, working the front end, taking orders, answering questions and more.

Ramirez and Melean came to the United States seven years ago. For three years they lived in Orlando, Florida, but they have family in the Evansville area who invited them to come settle nearby.

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In Venezuela, Alexander was a lawyer and Emily was a teacher. In Orlando, Alexander worked in a restaurant. The couple always enjoyed cooking together, and in Evansville, they decided they wanted to open a restaurant serving the foods of their country, both to give our sizeable Venezuelan population a taste of home and to introduce Venezuelan food to an American audience.

What is Venezuelan food like?

Americans often imagine the cuisine of a country where Spanish is spoken must be similar to that of Mexico, and this couldn’t be more wrong.

Venezuela is a large country with a coastline along the northern edge of South America. The Islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Trinidad and Tobago are just a few miles off the shore, so the cuisine can have a definite Caribbean flavor. Hundreds of miles to the south, the southern tip extends into the Brazilian rainforest.

Venezuelan food has very little chili heat. While corn meal is used, it is not like Mexican cornmeal, but a fine white instant meal called Pan, which is used to make thick corn cakes called arepas. Meats are enhanced with flavorful marinades and spice blends with ingredients such as onion, cilantro, mustard and turmeric. While some salsas and pico de gallo are used, chimichurri sauce with parsley, garlic and oil is also common, and the Rava's house sauce is a creamy mayonnaise and herb sauce enhanced with a touch of avocado.

On the menu

In a charming bid to blend Venezuelan food into the Evansville landscape, many of Rava’s dishes are named after Evansville streets (wait until you hear about the Morgan Ave. burger). There are, for the time being, four main menu sections – appetizers, patacones, arepas and burgers. In the future, specials and special desserts will be added.

Appetizers

• Tequeños are cheese sticks, but instead of being breaded, they’re wrapped in long strips of hand-rolled dough and fried until crisp, then served with the house sauce made with parsley, mayo, garlic, minced capers, onion, a touch of avocado and more. If you were a fan of the famous Floppy Disk sauce at the old Bits and Bytes café, you’ll love this sauce.

• Empanadas are half-circles of white cornmeal-based dough, filled with shredded meat, folded and fried until crisp and puffy. They are served with chimichurri sauce and the house sauce.

• Pastelitos are similar to empanadas, but are made with a dough utilizing wheat flour, similar to that wound around the cheese sticks.

Patacones

It might look like a sandwich, but you’ll need to eat this dish with a fork. The “bread” of a patacon is made of ripe yellow plantain banana pressed and fried into a sweet, caramelized disk. Between is your choice of meat, with toppings of ham, cheese, shredded lettuce, sliced tomato, and drizzles of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and house sauce.

Meat choices include shredded long-cooked beef, roasted marinated pork, grilled chicken or shredded chicken breast with a turmeric spice blend, and grilled beef.

Arepas

Arepas are thick corn cakes fried with a mild white cornmeal mixture. Think of a fat, chewy gordita tortilla, but make it thicker, whiter and more delicate. Arepas are split and filled with a meat of your choice, pico de gallo salsa, cheese, and the the creamy house sauce made with parsley, mayo, garlic, and a touch of avocado. If you were a fan of the famous Floppy Disk sauce at the old Bits and Bytes café, you’ll love this sauce.

There is a vegan arepa is made with black beans, plantain and avocado, or cheese can be substituted for the plantain if the diner is a vegetarian.

The Cabimera Arepa (or the Lloyd Expressway as it is named on the menu) is a little different, with the corn cake deep fried to luxurious crispness, then all ingredients piled on top and finished with slices of boiled eggs.

Burgers

Beef patties are only the beginning of a Venezuelan burger. Combinations of beef or chicken, bacon, ham and more are the norm. The aforementioned Morgan Ave. Burger contains a beef patty, grilled chicken, a smoked pork chop, bacon, ham, cheese, potato sticks, lettuce, ketchup, mustard, and house sauce.

Drinks

Venezuelan canned drinks and fountain drinks are offered. We enjoyed the the papelon con limon, or Venezuelan lemonade.

Rava’s Venezuelan Restaurant

• Location: 900 Main Street, inside the Main Street Food & Beverage Food Hall

• Phone: 321-440-3372

• Hours: Monday–Thursday, 11 a.m.- 2 p.m. for lunch and 4-9 p.m. dinner; Friday-Saturday 9 a.m.-2 p.m for lunch and 4-10 p.m. for dinner; Sunday 9 a.m.- 3 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Rava's Venezuelan restaurant opens in Evansville